


is this what they meant by destiny?

by goodboysweaterTM



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Dyad (Star Wars), Redeemed Ben Solo, Reylo - Freeform, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, and there is hair braiding!, ben and rey get their HEA, ben reunites with leia, canon events reimagined, no one dies, on naboo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:00:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23384146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodboysweaterTM/pseuds/goodboysweaterTM
Summary: Rey is sixteen when she learns what the words tattooed on her wrists mean.One, the name of her soulmate and the other, the name of her enemy, and she is left without a clue as to which is which. Such is the burden of this knowledge.Ben is ten when the tattoo appears. There is just one.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 44
Kudos: 309





	is this what they meant by destiny?

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my lovely beta and wonderful cheerleader [reylogarbagechute](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reylogarbagechute)!
> 
> [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/187668241@N04/49713693828/in/dateposted-public/)  
> 
> 
> This fic is based off a [prompt](https://twitter.com/nightfurykyber/status/1231872819325231117) retweeted by Reylo Prompts on twitter: "You have your soulmate's names on one wrist and your enemy's on the other, and have no idea which is which."

Rey is sixteen when she learns what the words tattooed on her wrists mean. They’ve been there for as long as she can remember, beautiful and sloping blue lines that curve in a script she’s never seen before. As a child, the trace of the familiar pattern had brought her inexplicable comfort. No one had been there to explain it to her, the weight those two words held, yet somehow she had known their importance. 

It happens on an utterly mundane day. The washroom is warm and bustling with bodies, but the water is cool and comforting. She unravels the worn bands from her aching arms to wash the layers of dust and sand caked there. With almost no thought at all, she takes just a little extra care to uncover the words etched into her skin. It catches the attention of the girl next to her, older than her but still so young, too young to be fighting so harshly to survive in this desolate desert. And then it only takes a few minutes for Rey’s entire universe to shift.

“The waiting drives you crazy, doesn’t it?” the girl asks, wringing out a small scrap of dirty cloth. Rey is nodding before she even understands the question. She is always waiting, waiting for her parents to come back for her, for a jackpot of salvaged parts, for rain.

“What does?” Rey asks when her brain catches up to her body, her hands pausing their scrubbing. A look of confusion passes over the girl’s features and she gestures to Rey’s wrists.

“Waiting to meet them,” she states, as if this vague statement is explanation enough.

“...who?” Rey asks, washing forgotten and body turned from the water basin.

“Your soulmate. And your enemy?” the girl responds, turning from the basin to mirror her. “Hasn’t anyone told you?”

“Soulmate? What are you talking about?” Rey asks as an unidentifiable feeling fills her chest, something like fear and hope and longing all at once. 

And so this girl tells her how the two words on her wrists are names. One, the name of her soulmate and the other, the name of her enemy, and she is left without a clue as to which is which. Such is the burden of this knowledge. 

Her gaze feels different as she reads the words for the thousandth time and it feels as if she’s only truly seeing them for the first time. _Ben_ and _Kylo_. Suddenly, she doesn’t feel so alone. There is someone out there for her. Someone who is waiting as she waits. 

—

Ben is eight when he learns what the tattoos mean, when he is made acutely aware of the fact that the tender skin of his wrists do not bear them. He had never paid much attention to the words that adorned his friends' arms, for they have always been there. It all changes at a lunch table one cold afternoon when his friends ponder about their tattoos, about meeting their soulmates, about their destiny. Someone explains it to him and his ears ring for the rest of the school day. He comes home in tears, to the open arms of his mother. Big brown eyes full of fear and worry, even as she reassures him of all the reasons they have yet to appear. He is mollified for the moment. Perhaps they haven’t been born yet.

Ben is ten when the tattoo appears. There is just one. _Rey_ written in a scraggly and unrefined script. He wakes from a deep sleep to find it indented in his left wrist and he doesn’t know what to feel. When his father sees, there is a look of sadness in his eyes even as he tells him that it must be his soulmate; that he is too good to have any enemies. As a child Ben believes him, believes that all his future holds is love and acceptance. Even as he begins to only wear long sleeves, as he hides his wrists and excuses himself from conversations of soulmates, he holds out hope.

As he gets older though, he learns the truth of the harsh world he was born into. A world at war and full of darkness and unfulfilled promises. The voices in his head never fail to remind him. He was only ever meant to be someone’s enemy. 

\---

It is only a few years later when Rey meets him. Her enemy. He is an imposing figure in black as he chases her through the buzzing forest of Takodana. Kylo Ren, he is called. It is easy to hate him, a creature in a mask, as he raises his crackling blade to her throat. Easy to blame him for the pain of her newfound friends, for the destruction and conflict blooming across the galaxy. But she learns all too quickly that it is not that simple. When he takes off his mask for her, she sees that he is just a man. A constellation of moles and a head of silky hair, but still just a man. 

They are a swirling storm after this first meeting. A clash of minds and blades, yet always inevitably slipping out of each other's grasps. She is running from him, through the cold and empty halls of starkiller base and he follows, a body of sparks and fury. She sees him again from the platform that overlooks the chasm of the thermal oscillator, illuminated by the light of a dying sun. A bridge connects the two disparate edges and on it walks the mighty Kylo Ren, face hidden behind a helmet of cold metal once again. She watches as Han approaches him, listens as he calls out to him. 

“Ben!”

And oh how the ground itself seems to shake underneath her feet. It finally makes sense—why the beautiful cursive of both names are the same, as if they were written by the same hand. Her wrists seem to burn now as her mind struggles to comprehend. She looks on as her enemy, her soulmate, ignites his saber into his father’s chest. Ben and Kylo are the same, two sides of one coin. She sobs, mourning the loss of a new friend and her naive notions of the black and white of good and evil. He hears her scream, eyes turning to meet hers, and then she is running from him, running from the weight of this new knowledge. This is not what that young girl on Jakku had wished for.

\---

Ben finds the girl again in the forest, side by side with the deserter. His breath is heavy as his blood drips into the snow beneath them. Her eyes seem to stare straight through him despite being so filled with fear. After a moment he sends her careening into the thick trunk of a tree, desperate not to feel so vulnerable under her gaze. 

“Rey!” the traitor calls after, rushing to her side. 

And so the moment is upon him. Here she is, this Rey that has haunted his mind with that unanswered question: is she his soulmate or his enemy? He hardly has time to wonder, as the man threatens him with the lightsaber that bears his family’s legacy. There is not another moment to feel anything as he strikes the man down with a slice of his blade. He feels numb as he reaches for the blade discarded by his opponent.

The lightsaber flies past him to her hands. _My enemy then_ , he thinks as she ignites it and readies her stance. But then why does he feel nothing but awe as he stands opposite her, a vision of strength and power illuminated by the blue of the blade. Somewhere deep in the back of his mind the thought comes unbidden, _soulmate_. There isn’t much time to think about it past that fleeting moment as their blades clash and strike yet he can’t help but think how luminous she is, fire in her eyes yet surrounded by the cold of snow. Even as she stands above him in triumph, he can’t bring himself to hate her. 

\---

She is angry, she realizes, when she sees him next. They connect across galaxies, across millions of stars and yet, despite the distance, she feels his inexplicable pull. It feels unfair, the significance he holds in her life. How can one man be the person she’s been waiting for so long to meet and also someone she should stay far away from? One man with warm brown eyes. 

Ben meets her anger with curiosity, marvelling at this connection they share. All he can see is her, and her brightness looks so out of place within the stark corridors of the finalizer. This moment is fleeting but there are many more that follow it. He sees small glimpses of her unbridled spirit and her unrelenting fierceness and with each, the small voice in the recesses of his mind gets louder, the word _soulmate_ beats brighter.

Rey notices something new about him each time their minds bridge across endless space. The moles that assemble constellations across his face, the soft curling of his dark hair, the stretch of his broad shoulders, and the pink of his plush lips. Each time he turns to face her, she wonders who it is that greets her. Is it the warm face of her soulmate that she can’t seem to take her eyes off of, or the visible strength of her enemy’s form that clouds her vision? Is it Ben or Kylo that looks back at her with pleading eyes? He is always appearing when she least expects it, when she doesn’t want him to. 

Then suddenly she is reaching out for his comfort.

She is drenched and still shivering as they sit facing each other. With the warmth of the blanket that enwraps her, the fire that crackles in front of her, and perhaps the glow of his presence alone, the heat begins to sink back into her limbs. He listens intently as she recalls the illusory cave and her cold plunge into the sea. She wants to ask him why his eyes sparkle with unshed tears. Are they for her? _Has anyone ever cried for me?_ she wonders. He seems to recognize a feeling within her, that intense loneliness that burrows in her chest.

“You’re not alone,” Ben tells her. She believes him.

“Neither are you,” Rey whispers back. She hopes he knows it’s true.

It spurs him to move, for then he is removing his gloves. Slowly he pulls the leather from his fingertips even as his eyes stay fixed on her. He bares his wrists to her and she sees what he has carried for a lifetime. Her name is scrawled across only one of his arms. A tear slips unbidden down her face. The realization is explosive in her mind: she has always been the only one for him too. Rey can’t help but imagine the endless possibilities. A future with him by her side. It’s out of her control, the way her hand reaches for his to trace the indent of her name on his skin. A gasp escapes him. Just as she is about to show her wrists in turn, Luke Skywalker arrives. The moment is gone as the connection fizzles and Ben slips through her fingers. Rey feels him reaching for as he fades. 

“This is not going to go the way you think,” Luke warns her.

The disappointment is loud in his eyes but her mind is made up. She will go to him. 

\---

Rey goes to him. In a flurry of sparks and clashing weapons, they defeat Ben’s master and his guards. They are a vision as they move together, bodies and minds and souls connected. Their hearts beat rapidly and breaths come harshly in the aftermath. Their eyes carry something different now, a new emotion. Rey knows now that he is her soulmate without a doubt. Her Ben. And he knows it too, for they have fought side by side, back to back, and _won_. There is no way he could ever see her as his enemy. 

“Ben,” Rey calls to him, heart in her throat. It is time to show him who he is to her. Someone special. She begins to unwrap the bands that cling to her arms. He takes an unconscious step towards her. They both buzz in anticipation. Then her wrists are bared to him.

Luke was right, this would not go the way she thought.

Ben freezes and it’s almost as if she can feel him slipping away from her. It’s painful, only having had him for a few wonderful moments.

He staggers back as if he has been struck. The realization leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. Her wrists hold both of his names, Ben and Kylo. He may indeed be her soulmate but he is also her enemy, and he will not hurt her.

“Rey,” he rasps. “I can’t do this.” He is spiraling and spiraling into the darkness. This is a pain he has never felt, to know that she is his soulmate but that he is her enemy. Maybe Snoke was right, maybe pain was always his fate.

“Ben, please don’t go this way,” Rey pleads. She wants to shake him and make him understand but he has made a decision too. She can see it in the rigid set of his body. It is to push her away. 

What exquisite sorrow it is to want something but not be able to have it. 

\---

It takes unspeakable darkness in the galaxy for them to see each other again. It has only been a year but it feels like lifetimes to Ben. He has had plenty of time to wish that he was by her side, to wish things were different, to wish that he was a better man. Yet he still knows he made the right decision, for his pain is far better than hers.

But he does not think about Rey’s pain. _Idiot_ , she calls him in her head. _Kriffing idiot._ She tries to be angry with him, and she is. But she is also unbelievably sad. Heartbroken for the man who thinks he can be nothing but a monster. She knows there is light in him. Heartbroken for the younger version of herself, the young girl on Jakku who was always waiting for someone to come back for her. Maybe this has always been her fate, to be left by those who were supposed to never leave her side.

So when the message from the once fallen emperor rings throughout the galaxy, Ben knows he must reach out to her. Who else can he trust? Who else is strong enough to face this challenge? There is no one but her.

They connect across galaxies and she greets him with anger once again. She strikes and parries in a blaze of blue. If he wants to be her enemy then she shall be his. He only responds in defense. He does not want to fight her, he never has. Instead, Ben asks for her hand, asks her to join him so they can defeat this great evil together. 

Rey wants to take it. She wants to fight by his side again, as they did in the red glow of Snoke's throne room. Yet, she knows she can’t. He asks this of her not as her soulmate, but as someone else. It is too painful to look at him and pretend he is an adversary when she knows him as she does.

“I know I am your enemy,” Ben says as his breath comes quickly, “but I need your help.” It hits somewhere deep in her chest when he says it. It has her wondering if he ever even wanted to be her soulmate.

“You are not my enemy Ben,” Rey whispers as she disengages her saber. 

“Look at your wrists Rey!” he growls. It is his turn to be angry. Angry with the universe for those two names that she will forever bear. “I _am_.”

“No!” she retorts. Even after all this time, he does not see her as she sees him.

“I made a choice! I will not hurt you,” he interrupts her. His anger crackles in the force around him. She feels it wash over her and suddenly she is tired. She does not want to fight him and she knows he does not understand.

“I wish you had chosen to be my soulmate,” Rey tells him. “I wish you had chosen me.” And with that she is running, slipping through his fingers once again.

\---

Ben is a raging storm. He cannot shake the look Rey’s eyes held when she ran from him. She had wanted him to choose her and he hadn’t. His emotions threaten to tear him apart as they dig up deep wounds and rip open freshly healed ones. That was all he wanted once, wasn’t it? For someone to choose him. How many years had he spent wanting his parents to pick him over a diplomatic meeting or a smuggling run? And when someone finally did decide to choose him it was for all the wrong reasons. Snoke, or Darth Sidious he supposes, wanted him for his power, his legacy. And it was used against him, to make him into a broken and dark man. He doesn’t want to be that man anymore, he just doesn’t know where to start.

“Ben,” a voice calls through the force, his mother, and all at once he is eight again and crying in her arms. 

“Mom,” his voice is horse as he speaks into the dusk air. He can feel her despite the vast distance that separates them. Leia, smart woman that she is, knows without him having to tell her. She knows the choice he wants to make and who he wants to make it for.

“You deserve to be happy,” she whispers and he can almost feel her calloused fingers stroking his hair. “It’s not too late.”

He takes a harsh breath in. Even after all this time she feels this way? It’s hard to believe and yet he knows it is true.

“Go to her,” his mother urges. His mother is always right. Go to her he will.

\---

When he runs into the Emperor’s arena with nothing but a blaster and a look of determination, it is clear that he has made a choice. Rey can see the absence of the burden that had so often held him down as he looks to her with an open face. This is Ben Solo, her soulmate. They share a nod and then she is passing the legacy saber across the distance that separates them. It is a familiar weight in his palm and it feels right to hold his grandfather’s weapon as he slashes through the Knights of Ren. 

Rey is a force to be reckoned with as she wields his mother’s blade. A twirling strike to one sith trooper and a force push to the next. She feels unstoppable. _He’s here_. 

They are a sight to behold when they finally come together. They stand side by side and raise their lightsabers in unison to face the emperor. They move as one and he is no match for the power of two soulmates. The emperor’s lightning comes barreling towards them, illuminating the darkness of the cavern. They cross their weapons, reflecting his own offensive strike back at him. They defeat him, together.

And afterwards they hold each other. Each pulling the other in tighter, trying to get closer even though there is no space left between them. Rey can feel his heartbeat nearly thump out of his chest. She’s sure hers feels the same.

“You came,” she breathes, gripping the width of his shoulders.

“Of course I did,” he responds as his hands coast to rest on her hips. “You’re my soulmate.”

With that, she crushes her lips to his. The kiss is bruising and wonderful and it feels like coming home. _Finally_ , she thinks. When they break apart Ben’s face splits into the most brilliant smile she’s ever seen. He has dimples around his mouth and his eyes are so warm, she can’t look away.

They make it back to the resistance base after some puzzling arrangement in Luke’s repaired X-wing. They are badly bruised and more than a few things are broken but they are happy and they have each other. When Ben sees his mother he stops in his tracks. Even though she is grayer she still holds herself with the same elegance, the same power and beauty. He missed her, he realizes. And then he is running towards her, pushing through the crowd and dragging Rey along behind him. When he reaches her he folds over to envelop her in a tight hug. They are crying then, endless streams of happy tears. They don’t say anything yet but they don’t need to. There is plenty of time to talk, later. When the tears subside, Ben calls Leia “mom”, and introduces Rey as his soulmate. Leia pulls them both in for a hug, this time with laughter, and Rey thinks she might finally understand what it means to have a family.

\---

It is months later when they find themselves sitting at the edge of one of Naboo’s great lakes. They watch the crystalline water lap up against the shore as the sky warms with the glow of the evening sun. Rey’s hands are tangled in Ben’s hair as she practices the Alderaanian braiding techniques he’s been teaching her. His hair is longer now and so soft as it cards through her fingers. He looks beautiful with plaited loops and patterns curving around his head. Her braids don’t look anywhere near as elegant as the ones he creates in her hair, but she can still see the pride in his smile when she projects the image of the final product across the bond. 

When she finishes this time, she shifts to kneel in front of him and lets her hands drift down through the tendrils framing his face to cup his cheeks. She leans in to press a soft kiss to his growing smirk. His hands grasp her wrists to stop her from pulling away. When she opens her eyes she sees how his thumbs trace the tattoos nestled there. His face sombers as he strokes her left wrist, the one that holds the moniker that carried him through the dark.

“I wish you didn’t have this name on your wrist,” Ben sighs. “I want to scrub it from your skin.” He gently releases her hands and turns to face the water. 

_Oh, her Ben. Always carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders._

Rey’s hands reach out once again to caress his smooth cheeks, gently using the press of her fingertips to tilt his face back towards her. His eyes hold regret and she watches a thick swallow travel down his throat. 

“Ben,” she comforts, a small smile gracing her lips. “I wouldn’t remove this name even if I could.” A look of apprehension clouds his face.

“But Kylo Ren...” he trails off. Rey reaches out through the bond, and feels a nebula of pain and fury that surrounds this name. It is a name that has harmed and destroyed. “Whatever good I do now won’t make up for that.”

Rey reaches for his hands now and she responds, “Kylo Ren is a part of you but he does not define you.” 

She places a kiss to each of his knuckles, still rough with callouses, and he heaves a deep sigh.

“There is darkness in all of us,” she tells him, thinking of the way it still swirls inside her too. “This name is a reminder that we cannot let it control us. It is a reminder of the pain you have caused but also the pain you have endured.”

Tears roll down his cheeks but he doesn’t dare remove his hands from her hold.

“Don’t let it control you now,” she pleads, squeezing her hands around his.

He gets a look that Rey can only describe a starry-eyed and then he is moving. He crushes his mouth to hers roughly and now both of their cheeks are wet. But his lips are warm and her tongue is sweet and he finds it just a little easier to breathe. They’re both wearing grins when they part. He doesn’t want his past to control him, when she is his future. 

“We have a lot of lost time to make up for” she whispers conspiratorially. There is fire in her eyes now. “I think you should start by removing some of my clothes.” 

Ben lets out a watery laugh and he shakes his head in disbelief.

_Oh his ferocious scavenger. His soulmate._

Rey is slowly sliding her palms up his thighs when he gives in.

“I better get to it then,” he hums, before he pulls her in for another bruising kiss.

Ben can’t help but feel wonder in these moments. For in a galaxy so large and vast as this, how lucky is he to have found her—that one person meant just for him. He’s walked through fire just to reach her embrace. 

If he could, Ben would tell that ten year old boy that it would all be okay. And Rey would tell that sixteen year old girl to never give up hope. They would say that one day you’ll meet your soulmate, and it will feel like coming _home_. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Let me know what you think and come say hi on [twitter](https://www.twitter.com/bensoloisatop) :)


End file.
